Orbit Airlines flight 7523
Summary Date: 15th July, 2002 Summary: Maintenance Error which lead to Atmospheric icing leading to loss of control Operator: Orbit Airlines (New Zealand) Aircraft: Aerospatiale (ATR) 72-212 Registration: ZK-HJA Aircraft Name: The Propstar of Wellington Passengers: 56 Crew: 5 Origin: Wellington International Airport Destination: Auckland Airport Survivors: 0 Fatalities: 61 (All) Aircraft Details The plane was an ATR 72-212 that was order by Orbit Airlines in 1993 and had previously being registered previous in Canada (C-GHJA) from 1993-1995, Germany (D-AATL), from 1995-1999 before being move to New Zealand an operate regional flights in New Zealand and was named "The Propstar of Wellington". It can carry a total of 72 passengers and usually flies the Auckland to Wellington route. The Captain was 25 year old Australian Nicola Albini. At 25 she is one of the youngest Captain at Orbit with a total of 2,358 hours of flight time with 719 in the ATR with 519 as Captain. Other pilots describe her as confident and friendly to work with. The First Officer was 27 year old New Zealander Mark Orchard. He has a total of 1,012 hours of flight time with 23 hours in the ATR and was underneath training at the time of the accident. Other pilots describe him as confident and shy at times. The Observer was 31 year old Frenchman Joël Delesel. At 31 he is an expire ATR pilot with a total of 7,671 hours of flight time with 5,719 in the ATR with 1,342 as a Tranning Captain. Other pilots describe him as a real 'Go Getter', Confident & as a 'Natural Pilot'. He usually flew in France & Europe but was working in Australia & New Zealand seeing how the Oceania diversion of Orbit was teaching their pilots. The senior flight attendant was 57 year old Margret Lambe who had being working at Orbit for the last 29 years. She was describe by fellow passengers and colleagues as having a friendly personality and a smart lady. The junior flight attendant was 19 year old Candi Critter who had only being hired by Orbit earlier that year and was under supervision by Margret. According to her family she has dreams to be a senior flight attendants on long haul flights. Both women were born and lived in New Zealand. There was 56 passengers, 42 New Zealanders, 13 Australians & 1 Indonesian on board. Three were babies as well as 15 children with the rest being adults. Details At 11:20 in the morning, Orbit Airlines flight 7522 arrives from Auckland in Wellington and the crew prepares to fly back to Auckland. At 11:53, the doors are closed and the crew start the engines and two minutes later and begin taxing to the runway. One minute before takeoff the pilots are told about the rain in the region as well as some winds. At 11:59, one minute before its schedule take off, Captain Albini, throttles up her engine for the 1 hour and 20 minute flight to Auckland. Shortly after takeoff, the crew set the autopilot to climb to 23,000 feet and proceeds on coarse to Auckland. Five minutes after takeoff, at and altitude of around 10,000 feet, the pilots turn off the fasten seat belt and the flight attendants start the drink and meal service. At 12:14, fifteen minutes after departure, the ATR 72 reaches its cruising altitude the pilots notice rain ahead but since their on board radar only hows green and some yellow, the decide to allow the flight attendants to continue with meal service and keep the fasten seat belt sign off. At 12:19, flight 7523 makes it last schedule ATC transmission stating that they are on coarse. Shortly afterwards, the Master Caution warning sound. In response, Captain Albini increase her airplane speed by 15 knots and activates her De-Icing equipment to maxim power. At 12:21, the CVR picks up the pilots discussing the arrival in Auckland, when a strange noise is heard in the cockpit which prompts the Captain to ask "What is That?" Before anyone can respond, the control column snaps to the right and the auto pilot disengages. The ATR banks sharply to the right and pitches down and 12 seconds afterwards, at and altitude of around 19,000 feet the pilots bring the plane under control. But it happens again and the plane banks sharply to the right and begins to lose more altitude. At 12:22, the pilots are able to regain the control of the airplane and the Captain ask the First Office to declare a mayday and the Observer states that they are at an altitude of 12,000 feet at a speed of 276 knots. Before the First Officer, can declare a mayday, the ATR banks again to the right and starts to spinning towards the ground. The pilots struggle to regain control as Flight Attendant Lambe tells the passengers to brace as she and Flight Attendant Critter take their seats at the back of the plane. An overspeed, stall and a GPWS warning start to sound in the cockpit as the pilots are starting to regain control of their aircraft. At 12:23, 23 minutes after departure, the ATR 72 crashes and a slight right bank and slight nose down at a speed of 397 knots (735 km p/h) installing destroying the plane and killing all of the people on board. Just before 2pm in the afternoon rescuers found the remains of the airplane with only the tail being the only recognisable wreckage of the airplane. Orbit Airlines starts phoning the victims family and offers counselling to any victims family members and in a pres conference, a spokesman stated that "Orbit Airlines is sad to say that flight 7523, an ATR 72, named "The Propstar of Wellington", flying between Wellington and Auckland has crashed around 30 minutes after departure. We have the unfortunate duty to inform the victims family members and the world that all 61 people have sadly died. This is truly a sad day for everyone apart of the Orbit Family!" The New Zealand Prime Minster declares three days of national morning. Investigation On the day of the crash, the Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) assemble a team and where at the crash site by 7pm. They had declare the crash site to be bio hazard and members of the team and to wear special suit to prevent chemical contamination. The soon found both black boxes and since the TAIC did not have the equipment to download the data, they were shipped off to the BEA since their country manufacture the aircraft. The BEA also asked the TAIC if they need any help which the TAIC accept and so a team from France came to New Zealand to help with the investigation. The following day, the TAIC start to investigate claims that the plane was brought down by terrorist as it had be less than a year since the terrible crashes of 9/11. The New Zealand police came and test the wreckage for any chemicals as well as looking for any signs of any explosions. Later that day, the BEA investigation team landed in Auckland. Both TAIC and the BEA looked into probable causes such as the flight control cables, flight instrument and strong winds but could not find any evidence to support these claims. Still with no leads, the team waits for the Black Boxes to be downloaded. With no new leads, they talk to Orbit Airlines pilots about the crew and the plane. All agreed that the pilots were well experience and profession however some of them highlight that maintenance could be slack at times with the ATR fleet. The team looked into the maintenance records and found no major problems. It had been three weeks since the crash and both teams had no reason to explain the crash until the black boxes arrived from France. They first look at the FDR and saw the in response to the bad weather in the flight path, the Captain increase her airspeed and turn the di-icing equipment on to its maxim setting. Then the team spots that in it last couple minutes of flight, the control column had been stuck in a hard right bank three separate times which caused a rapid bank to the right as well as a lost of altitude and fluctuating airspeed. After seeing this confusing data they listen to the CVR and it told the investigators that the crew were profession and the captain was concern about icing. Just before the first rapid bank to the right a strange sound was heard by the crew which promoted the captain to ask "What is That?", then the control column snap to the right and the CVR picked up the struggle from the pilots. The crew briefly recovered before it happen again and the crew also fixed the second bank and the captain ask the first officer to declare a mayday and the observer told the captain her airspeed and altitude. Then a third bank happened which cause the plane to spiral towards the ground and the investigations could hear the Flight Attendant Lambe on the PA telling the passengers to brace for impact and the sound of screams from the passengers, struggles of the crew and the numerous warning devices on the plane going off before the plane hit the ground and disintegrated. After hearing the CVR, the investigators decided to test the De-Icing boots on the aircraft and found that the tail and the left wing works but the right de-ice boots do not. The manufacture of the aircraft look at the boots and determine that there was a leak in the numismatic system that led the de-ice boots to inflate to break off the ice. The TAIC talk to Orbit Airlines maintenance and they learned that they were under pressure to keep cost to a minimal and send the planes back into the sky as quickly as possible. The also learned that pilots who flew ZK-HJA had complained about the de-ice boots for months on the right wing but all they did was ripped out the reports until the next overhaul off the plane which was schedule to be in September 2002 but the plane never reach this date. Knowing the maintenance played a role in the crash, the wonder how much ice could have formed onto the wing, and they determine to be only the thickness of a finger nail, not enough to bring down a plane. However, the knew that a previous crashes, like American Eagle flight 4184, and other ATR planes have been brought down by a small amount of ice. The team decide to fly a simulator in the same conditions as flight 7523 and they found that with ice on the right wing, it disrupted the airflow over that wing. The disrupted airflow cause the right aileron to stick up casing the plane to bank to the right. Since the ATR is a turboprop, it doesn't have power steering so the force of the wind and the plane was put into the control column. The team calculated the force that the pilots had to overcome the uncontrolled bank was around 250 kilograms, to much for two people to counteract with. The simulator show that the pilots had absolutely no chance of regaining control of their aircraft. After 21 months after the crash, the TAIC had stated that "The lost of Orbit Airlines flight 7523 was caused by the improper maintenance conduct by Orbit Airlines New Zealand on the right side de-ice boot which lead to ice developing on the wing. Weather in the flight plan caused an uncontrolled bank to the right which lead to three uncontrolled right banks and a significant loss of altitude which lead to the pilots to loss control of their aircraft." CVR Transcript TBA Aftermath After the report came out, Orbit Airlines New Zealand denied that they had told maintenance to cut back on work to save cost. However, the company was taken to court on the 9th of March 2005 for endangering the lives of passengers and crew. The CEO, President, Vice President, Treasure & Head of Maintenance all plead Not-Guilty but on the 30th of July, all five men were found guilty and the CEO, Treasure & Head of Maintenance were sentence to 10 years in prison while the President & Vice President was sentence to 5 years in prison. The airline was also forced to pay $250,000 to all of the victims families on-board flight 7523 and $10,000,000 to the New Zealand government. They were also forced to pay and build a memorial to flight 7523 and was completed and was completed on the fifth anniversary of the crash. After the court hearing, Orbit Airlines announced that their subsidiaries in Australia, New Zealand & Fiji will merge together to make Orbit Airlines Oceania. The merger was completed on the 1st of January 2006. Orbit Airlines Oceania adopted the maintenance operations from the former Australian subsidiary. Booking fell for Orbit Airlines in New Zealand after the crash and the airlines was forced to sell some planes and close some routes. However, bookings start to rise in 2009 after Soar Airlines New Zealand collapse and since the crash, the airline was able to open more routes and get more economic aircraft. After the crash, Orbit Airlines flight 7522 & 7523 were retired and was replaced with flight 7988 & 7989. Shortly after the crash, the ATR 72 was retired from the Auckland to Wellington route and was replaced by the Bombardier Q200/Q300 and this aircraft was replaced in 2009 by the larger Q400. Currently, this route is currently flown by either the Q400 or the Airbus A319.